A two-day CNE seminar at NHAK in Kohima focuses on quality healthcare, patient safety and nursing practices aligned with National Quality Assurance Standards.
KOHIMA — A two-day state-level Continuing Nursing Education (CNE) seminar on “Quality in Healthcare: Empowering Safe, Effective and Patient-Centred Care” is underway at the Naga Hospital Authority Kohima (NHAK) Auditorium Hall in Kohima.
The seminar, being held from September 22 to the 23rd, focuses on enhancing the knowledge and skills of nursing personnel in quality healthcare practices in line with the National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS).
Delivering the keynote address during the inaugural session on Tuesday, Nursing Superintendent of NHAK, Pinuo Nakhro, said the NQAS provides an institutional framework for systematically improving, monitoring and certifying the quality of care in public healthcare facilities.
She emphasised that quality in healthcare goes beyond infrastructure and advanced equipment, describing it as the result of “high intentions, sincere efforts, intelligent direction, and skilful execution.”
Nakhro highlighted the importance of quality improvement tools and internal quality assessment in identifying gaps, measuring performance and continuously improving healthcare services.
She stressed that quality improvement should be treated as an ongoing process of observing, assessing, correcting and improving rather than a one-time activity.
She said the seminar would cover various aspects of quality healthcare, including hospital-acquired infections, environmental hygiene, infection control, corrective and preventive action (CAPA), biomedical waste management, occupational and patient safety, nursing-specific quality areas, standard precautions, documentation and record keeping.
The seminar also focuses on quality indicators and key performance indicator (KPI) monitoring, patient rights and communication, patient-centred care, medication safety, high-alert medications, prevention of medication errors and early recognition of clinical deterioration.
Nakhro stated that nurses occupy a central position in the healthcare system as they remain involved throughout the patient journey, from admission and treatment to monitoring, education and discharge.
She therefore underlined the importance of maintaining quality in nursing practice as part of overall healthcare quality.
On documentation, she described records as a “single source of truth”, noting that critical patient information could be lost during handovers in the absence of proper record keeping and documentation.
Organising Secretary Vezhodulu Swiho said the seminar was not being organised merely to provide CNE credit points, but was closely linked to the growing importance of quality assessment under NQAS across healthcare facilities.
She said quality assessment had become a priority not only in hospitals but also at sub-centres and healthcare facilities in rural areas, and added that the seminar was intended to enhance the knowledge and skills of nursing personnel of all categories in delivering quality care.
Swiho encouraged participants to make use of the expertise and experience of the resource persons, some of whom, she said, were external assessors working closely in quality assessment.
She also encouraged participants to actively engage in the sessions and raise questions so that the knowledge gained could be put into practice at their respective workplaces.
The two-day seminar will cover various quality and patient safety-related topics aligned with NQAS such quality improvement and internal quality assessment, hospital acquired infection and environmental hygiene in hospital, infection control in hospital, CAPA; bio-medical waste management, occupational safety and patients safety, nursing specific quality areas, and standard precaution, among other various topics.
About 100 participants are attending the seminar.